Average Price: $269 – $340
Pros: no wires to bury, portable
Cons: small capacity, boundary wobble, proprietary battery
Best Uses: small properties, renters, people who can’t install a buried wire fence system
Overview
The PetSafe Wireless (PIF-300-11) dog fence is the original wireless dog fence from PetSafe. The fence is reasonably priced and pretty reliable but it has been outdone by PetSafe’s newer wireless fence, the Stay + Play Wireless. The PetSafe Wireless has a large, clunky transmitter, a larger collar, and a smaller capacity than the newer system. Since the Stay + Play is only $30 more, we have a hard time recommending this system over it.
Hands-On Review
OK Collar
This wireless fence system uses a medium sized relatively versatile collar. The collar is not enormous but isn’t as small as the newer PetSafe wireless fence. It fits dogs with neck sizes between 6 and 28” and is safe for dogs down to 8 lbs. although we think it’s too big for any dog under about 15 lbs. The collar is waterproof.
Proprietary Battery
One thing we don’t like about this collar is the proprietary disposable battery. This collar needs a PetSafe RFA-67 battery. And you won’t find it at the local corner store so you’ll want to keep a few on hand. The collar does have a low battery indicator light that will let you know when the collar battery is running low, giving you time to change it.
Compatible With Newer PetSafe Stay + Play
The good news is that this system is also fully compatible with the newer PetSafe Stay + Play. So, you can use this transmitter and that collar or vice versa. The transmitters are fully compatible as well, so you can add a Stay + Play transmitter to the original Wireless Fence transmitter to extend the capacity of your system. In addition the Stay + Play collar is rechargeable, so if the proprietary batteries are just too much for you or you have more than one dog, you can go ahead and get that Stay + Play collar and use it with this system.
Five Correction Level Settings + Tone-Only Mode
The Wireless Pet Fence collar has 5 correction level strength settings and a tone-only mode used for training your dog on the system. The correction levels range from medium-low to high and are changed on the collar itself by removing a plastic cap and pressing the button underneath.
½-Acre Capacity, Expandable
One of the drawbacks of a wireless dog fence system compared to a wired system is the capacity. All wireless systems have a small capacity than their wired counterparts. However, this system has a particularly small half acre capacity. And remember, wireless dog fences only do a circle, so the corners of your property will get cut off.
You can expand the capacity of your system by using a second (or third) transmitter and overlapping the signals. This allows you to make an oblong shape as opposed to the circle, so you can cover more ground.
Reliability
This fence has some boundary wobble issues. This means that the boundary zone (where your dog is warned and then corrected) fluctuates. This fluctuation can be little, not affecting the dog at all, or can be pretty great, causing a significant amount of confusion for the dog and possible difficulty in learning the system boundaries.
Value
The PetSafe Wireless Fence doesn’t have great value on it’s side anymore. Back when it was the only wireless system available it was one we recommended, but for just $30 more you can have a better collar, smaller transmitter, and greater capacity, making this system outdated.
Conclusion
We don’t have any huge issues with the PetSafe Wireless fence but it’s old and has been ousted by PetSafe’s newer wireless system.